Shirts with attached collars



March 8, 1960 J. R. LACOSTE 2,927,326

snms WITH ATTACHED COLLARS Filed Jan. 20, 1958 INVENTOR ATTORNEYS United States Patent SHIRTS WITH ATTACHED COLLARS Jean Ren Lacoste, Paris, France Application January 20, 1958, Serial No. 710,091

Claims priority, application France July 19, 1957 4 Claims. (Cl. 2-116) This invention relates to shirts provided with attached collars such as sports shirts which have become widely used since they are comfortable to wear, hitherto the comfortable character of the shirt has been incompatible with the correctness essential for a formal shirt which could be worn for everyday use and at work.

The present invention has as its object to provide a shirt which fulfils both these requirements; comfort and correctness, at the same time. The invention provides a shirt neck and collar which enable a neat correct closure to be obtained without using a button or stud, the shirt can also be worn equally well with or without a tie.

It is known that shirts or like garments exist which comprise, in prolongation of the neck opening and on the front of the garment, a triangular yoke constituted by a knitted or Woven fabric which allowed a certain elasticity in the transverse sense, without the use of buttons or studs. A neck thus formed allows the shirt to he slipped over the head easily, and allows complete freedom of movement to the users neck, and the use of buttons or studs thus dispensed with.

In certain cases, shirt necks of this type are augmented by collars of various types, but the addition of the collar entails reduction in the dimensions of the triangular insert in order to avoid too great a distance between the ends of the collar, or alternatively to fix the collar to the top of the triangular insert, which is used base up, and thus annul the elasticity of the triangular insert. In all cases, it is difiicult to wear a tie, and after a few movements of the neck, even fairly gentle movements, there is a risk that the collar will move upwards or downwards relatively to the position of the tie, which is generally not very elastic and therefore relatively fixed in position. The result is often, more particularly, an unattractive lack of balance in the apparent length of the two outer points of the collar.

In the shirt according to the invention the shirt neck comprises at the front a triangular cutaway part which may be wider than in prior known similar shirts, so as to permit the easy passage of the users head, and is fitted with a yoke in the form of a triangle base up, which is elastic in the transverse sense and is connected by stitching to the edgesof the cutaway part of the shirt; the neck is completed by a collar, preferably formed of a band folded over on itself in the sense of its length and which when fixed in position on the one hand allows the triangular yoke to retain all its elasticity and on the other hand permits the two ends of the collar to be brought together at the front, which gives the appearance of a formal collar and facilitates Wearing a tie. This fixing of the collar to the shirt neck is, under normal conditions, efiected at the rear of the neck and at the sides down to the two points at which the fastening of the elastic yoke to the edges of the triangular cutaway commences. From these two points, the folded band or collar which is made to straddle each of the lateral points of the elastic yoke is fixed by the edge of ice its inner portion-and over a certain length-to the edges of the triangular cutaway of the shirt neck; under these conditions, the horizontal upper edge of the triangular yoke i.e. the upwardly directed base is absolutely free, which allows the triangular yoke to retain all its elasticity.

According to alternative forms of embodiment, the outer part of the band which constitutes the collar may be either entirely free or fixed, by sewing, to the top of the shirt neck all round or only at the sides and at the front between the top of the shoulder and the points at which the shirt neck cutaway part is fixed to the yoke, or as far as the end of the points of the collar. Even in this case the triangular yoke remains free and completely elastic within and between the faces of the collar.

The attachment of the outer part of the collar to the shirt neck may advantageously be efiected in such manner that the two sides of the collar which at the front are situated astride the lateral points of the triangular yoke, are mounted slightly above the upper edge of the said yoke. In fact, a position slightly above may be desirable in order to permit the triangular yoke to remain quite fiat on the front of the chest (without breaking at the base of the wearers neck) and at the same time to permit a normal and correct position of the tie with a slightly higher collar to be obtained.

With such an arrangement the visible part of the triangular yoke is reduced to a surface which can be given, for example, a square or diamond shape and the sides of the collar are brought to the neck by the inherent elasticity of the collar in cases where the said collar is itself made of a mesh fabric which allows such elasticity in the requisite direction, that is to say, about the neck.

Individually or together, the features aforesaid prevent gaping and deformation of the shirt neck in cases where the shirt is worn without a tie ahd furthermore allow a tie to be worn with a collar made of elastic fabric.

Finally, in view of the form of the cutaway, the inner portion of the band constituting the collar could, at the sides and rear, be taken below the shirt fabric so as to reduce the height of the collar at the rear and at the sides relatively to its height at the front. Other methods of reducing the height of the collar could also be used, for example by cutting away the collar in an appropriate manner.

Shirts embodying the improvements according to the invention can easily be pulled on, they are pleasantly comfortable to wear, and they give the shirt a correctness of appearance comparable with that of a formal shirt.

The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are given by way of nonlimitative example, will make it readily understood how the'invention can be carried into effect, the features which are brought outboth from the drawings and from the text being understood to form part of the said invention.

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a normal shirt neck.

Figure 2 is a similar view showing the cut of the shirt in the region of the collar, according to the invention.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of a shirt neck with elastic yoke augmented by a collar constructed according to the invention.

Figures 4, 5 and 6 are sectional views on a larger scale, taken on the lines IV-IV, V--V and VIVI of Figure 3 respectively.

Figures 7 and 8 are detail views.

Figures 9 and 10 are diagrammatic views of two alternative forms of embodiment.

In ordinary shirts (Figure 1) the shirt neck 1 or called .to the size of the users neck, with some clearance allowed to permit free movements of the wearers neck insid'e.

According to the invention, the shirt A comprises a neck 2 whose rear portion a,;o, -b (Figure 2) is similar "to the corresponding portion'of the-normal neck or collar band 1. On the other hand the front part of theneckis so cut, in the general form of a triangle-(1,0, b, as to -'constitute a large cutaway part with-a view to permitting the easy passage of the shirt over the users head; the =cutaway part a, b, c is larger, as will beseen from Figure 2, than 'that already formed in certain shirts of known construction (indicated at d, e, f), the lateral edges of the cutaway a, c, b being connected directly to'the rear portion a, 0, b. As in the case of the said prior known "shirts, a triangular yoke as indicated atg, h, i (Figures 3 and 8) and preferably made of knitted-or woven fabric, elastic in the transverse sense, is mounted and fixed in the shirt neck'cutaway part a, c, 11.

The neck, is augmented by a collar 3 (Figures 3 and 7), constructed, in the normal form of shirt collars,

"either-by two bands 3a3b of the same contour fassembled together at their upper edge 3c,'or by a single 'band folded over on its central longitudinal axis 3c, as indicated in section in Figures 4 and 5.

' The collar 3 and yoke piece '5 are connected to the shirt A in the following manner.

The inner band 3b of the collarfis sewnto'the'rear part 2a ofthe shirt neck in the usual way 'as shown in section in Figure 4, where'there is shown the stitching 4 which connects the two elements 2a and 3'12, the'stitching extending "along the line a, 0, b. V 7

Then the lateral edges g, h and h, i of the yoke "'5 are connected to the corresponding edges of the cutaway 2 and attached thereto by stitching 7 (Figure '6').

, The two front ends of the-collar, not yet fixed it'othe shirt neck, are then made to bear againstthe said neck by arranging the two bands 3a, 3b of the collar astride the lateral corner parts of the yoke '5 and'the two bands 3a, 3b are then sewn together-as at g, g and i, i' (Figure '3) along the edge of the cutaway '2, along which edge the yoke 5 has already been sewn, as indicated hereinibefore; Figure 5 shows this mode of stitching.

5 is the yoke, 2 is the edge of the cutaway and, on either side, the bands 3a and 3b of the, collar thewhole being connected by stitching 8.

According to 'a modified form of embodiment as illustrated diagrammatically in Figure 9, the ends of theouter band 311 of the collar are free, the stitching of the'inner band 3b extending along the line g',.g, a, o, b, i, i'i whilst the stitching of the outer band would only be effected along the line g, a, 0, b, i, Y

With an alternative method of assembling .the. parts,

the stitching dis taken along the rear part of :the collar between the points g and i corresponding to the tops of the yoke, and then a single stitching would be effected about the periphery g, c, i, as indicated at 9 in Figure 3.

Whatever the form of embodiment, the upper horizontal edge g, i of the yokeis free, that is'to. say it does :not have any stitching, .thus allowing the yoke .5 .to .retain all its extensibility.

In these conditions, the transverse elasticity of the yoke can be used freely to permit the head to pass through the shirt neck and then to bring the edges of the neck into their normal position.

'The collar, owing to the fact that the two bands 3a and 3b thereof are connected to the edge of the shirt neck and the edges of the yoke 5, is always correctly held in position when the shirt isworn.

According to a modified form of embodiment as'illustrated in FigurelO, the top of the triangular yoke, i.e. the line g, i forming the base has been slightly spaced by the distance 'kfrom the top of the collar, so as to avoid crumpling the triangular yoke and to permit a higher collar position when wearing a tie.

Further bearing in mind the form of the cutaway, the

inner portion of the band constituting the collar 'could come down, at the sides and rear, under the fabric "of'the shirt so as to reduce the heightof the collar at the rear and at the sides relatively to its height at the "front, at

the points. It would also be possible to reduce the height of the collar, for example by shaping the band appropriately. V t g It will be apparent that modifications may bemadeto the forms of embodiment which'have just been described,

more particularly by the substitution of equivalent manu- 'facturing presses, without departing from "the scope of the presentinvention as defined by the appended claims.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patentfiis: l. A shirt with an attached collar ha'vinga neck 'encircling portion provided with a triangular cutaway part formed apex down at the front of said shirt, a triangular 35 :shaped yoke .of transversely elastic 'material sewn ba's'e up to the edges of said cutaway part along two adjacent sides respectively, and acollar comprising an inner .band and an outer band said inner bandbeing sewn to the edge of the shirt neck encircling portionand to at least a portion of the edges of 'said cutaway'part, whereby the front ends of said collar may be held closeto one'another without hindering theextensibility 'of said yoke.

2. A shirt as claimed in claim 1 wherein said yoke is made out of knitted fabric.

3. Ashirt as claimed in claiml wherein the outerband of said collar is sewn to the edges of said'neck encircling portion andof said cutaway part, at'l'east along a portion adjacent to the ends of said outer band.

4. A shirt as claimed in claim 1, whereinltheheig'ht of said triangular shaped yoke and the height of the front part of said'collar are such that the topof-said collaris spaced from'the base edge of said yoke.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATESPATENTS 1,410,870 .Atkinson Mar. 28, "1922 1,508,933 Hatch Sept. 16, 1924 1,714,491 Burr May 28, 1929 2,543,361 Garner .Feb. 27, 195.1 2,707,786 Stoner May 10,1955 

